The purpose of this essay is o analyse two videos that are within the categories of viral marketing and user generated material, including the key similarities and differences between them and also their effectiveness. Notably, an interactive video is user controlled, in terms of the ability to pause, rewind, forward, stop and replay. These videos are 'interactive' as they are used on popular websites such as youtube.com, dailymotion.com, vimeo.com and windows live or yahoo homepages for example.

Viral marketing is the term used for online advertising or campaigns to promote or sell a company's product and service. This form of advertising is very effective because of the vast amount of online users. In relation to this, it is estimated that the average person online watches approximately six and a half hours of online videos a week - making it an effective oppurtunity for companies to promote.

The first viral marketing video I will be talking about is the 2011 advert for the brand 'Fosters' (www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhm3sizia24). In this video, a distinctive British man placed in a holiday environment, poolside, is on his mobile phone with two distinctive Australian men who appear to be telephone advice gurus. The British man tells the two Australians that his male friend has just asked him to rub sun-block on him and then asks them what he should do. They respond with the question ''Is he wearing skivvys or tighty-whiteys?''. The British man tells them yes and they then tell him ''Do not make direct eye contact but keep your eyes open so you know where your hands are at all times, make sure you put on a lot so you don't have to apply a second coat.'' This response is said in a serious yet humourous manner and the British man ends the conversation by saying ''cheers mate'', then hangs up the phone and turns to his friend and tells him he has to change his clothes.The second viral marketing video is an advert for a ladies fragrance, 'Dior, J'adore', (www.youtube.com/watch?v=2n77wyfcy0). In this video, a celebrity female struts through rooms in what appears to be a mansion. Whilst doing so, she is taking each piece of clothing off, including jewellery, in a fierce and sensual mmanner. The fragrance bottle is then shown with its name, J'adore, to end the advertisement.

Between these two videos, similarities are evident. Firstly, they both have been already aired on television to promote further, as not all interactive videos are aired onto television - being exclusive clips for the internet. Another similarity is the product image being shown towards the end of the advert, both lasting for approximately the same amount of time of three seconds. Both videos are successful in targeting their aimed audience due to the gender and social classes of the actors and actresses used.

Moreover, there are many differences between the two videos. One is that the target audiences are different. Fosters appears to be aimed at 18-45 year old men whereas Dior is aimed towards women of young to middle-ages. Additionally, the contrast between social classes are made apparant and they both differ. The mansion in Dior portrays a rich, luxurious and upper class atmosphere whereas the holiday poolside environment is significantly a working class environment. The costumes also add to this apparant contrast between social classes as the celebrity in Dior wears a diamond necklace and silk clothing in comparison to the casual vests and swimming trunks worn by the actors in the Fosters advert.

The Fosters adversiement appears of a budgeted quality whereas the Dior advert is clearly expensive, due to the fact a celebrity is being used to promote the product in comparison to the unknown actors used in the Fosters advert. Both are effective in promoting their product despite being complete contrasts.

User generated videos are associated with videos that are not made by copmanies, but a general internet user, amateur to filiming and editing. These are also web-based, uploaded on to sites such as earlier mentioned in the essay. Commonly, user profiles are made in order to upload these videos, creating a 'channel' or 'profile' and the users hav the option to privatise their video or make it available for any person to view. Some videos are made in order to promote themselves, such as an artist or musician, but this is not classed as official advertising.

The first user generated video that will be explained is taken from 'Wiz Khalifa's YouTube Video Blog' channel, called 'Daytoday season 4 episode 10' (www.youtube.com/watch?v=ab30iwinkga). In this video, rap artist Wiz Khalifa is on his European tour, starting in London then Amsterdam and finally Germany. During this space of time, Wiz is shown smoking marijuana whilst doing radio interviews and photoshoots. Other footage includes Wiz with his crew fooling around and performing his music. These are shown in short clips that totals to a ten-minute long video summarising his month long tour.

The next video is from an acoustic band called 'Boyce Avenue' who performs their rendition of Ne-Yo's commercial song, Closer (www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ok7nmoraxs). The video starts with a blank screen introducing the band's name in text form followed by the song title. Straight afterwards the performance begins with the lead singer shown playing his guitar. This carries on until the end of the song and is filmed in different shots, appearing to be taken with five different cameras.

The similarities between both videos is that they feauture musicians with their performances. Additionally, they are both showcased as music videos and both have been filmed in various shots and angles, rather than a one angled shot. Furthermore, these videos are similar in the terms that both artists are self-promoting their selves through the videos.

Differences between the two videos include the duration, where Wiz Khalifa's video lasts for approximately six minutes longer than the Boyce Avenue video. However, these contrasts are effective in their own way as the length of the videos intend the video's purpose. Additionally, another difference is that Wiz Khalifa's video has a documentary approach whereas random clips and shots in comparison to the more planned and organiced Boyce Avenue video. Both have different target audience in terms of the genre of music which is made apparant.

Boyce Avenue's and Wiz Khalifas filming both appear to be of a budgeted quality. This shows how user generated material online can be as poweful as viral marketing. Both these videos are successful in reaching their target audience and have the appropriate length suited to their purposes.

Monday, 20 June 2011

I came to a decision which was cutout animation. My idea’s theme was comedy and involved a collection of popular sitcoms from E4 put into a cutout animation with memorable quotes playing in the back ground while the characters mimed. At the end of the ident I made a short sequence of the characters followed by a miniature cartoon like explosion then the E4 logo to conclude.

My personal opinion was that my ident was a success. On the other hand this opinion was backed up by the feedback I received from my colleagues in my class and my tutor. What made my ident a success I believe was the amount of creativity and humour which tends to capture and entertain a mass majority of audiences, especially fans of sitcoms and E4. Positives aside, there is always room for improvement. I noticed the way I edited my ident was not very smooth and is quite far away from a professional standard. White balance alongside with contrast stood out as amature not to mention sound levels and the timing of the characters lip sync with the audio. Improvement of these points would of made a dramatic difference in my ident. The fact I realise all this will have a big impact on any future video based project I do in future. I believe this was a positive experience for me and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Having no previous experience with istopmotion and Macintosh computers made this assignment difficult for me. With help from my peers and tutor I got to grip with the software and computer and slowly progressed to create my ident. Stop start animation is a long process and I found it very difficult especially cutout animation. I tried very hard to get my idea from my head to paper, from paper to computer, from computer to the internet (youtube).

Having over 90% positive feedback for my ident made me more than happy as it was much more than I had expected. If ever given the chance to do an identical or similar project I believe I would be able to be more organised, more focused and more importantly more professional.

2. Give examples of where you managed your time effectively or where you could have improved your time management.

My production was on time, I planned and filmed my ident in 2 lessons but my pre-production work was only completed after I filmed. I could of improved my pre-production if I was strict to my schedule.

3. How well did you fulfil your role on this project?3

4. How did you fulfil your role? Give examples to justify your score.

This score reflects on my ability to organize and concentrate on my goal.

5.How well do you think your animation answered the creative brief?

3

6.What aspects of the brief did you manage to fulfil? Give examples.

My ident was a form of 2 animations, stop start and cut out. I also kept it colour co-ordinated with E4.

7. What areas of the project didn’t work well? In future what you differently?

The areas that didn’t work well for me were the editing. I didn’t have any experience using Final Cut pro with the Macs also matching the audio I had with the cutout animation I made was very difficult because again I had no experience.

8. What areas of the project are you most proud of?

I was most proud of the fact that the outcome of my ident was as I imagined and the fact that I could use this experience for any similar future situations.